Energy and Water Conservation in Cooling of Containers Containing Heated Products

Abstract

A system comprising a pre-heater located downstream of where a product stream is formed and upstream of a heater that heats the product stream to a desired temperature, the pre-heater comprising a circulating stream of a first heat transfer stream that pre-heats the food product, a container cooler comprising a circulating stream of a second heat transfer stream that cools containers containing the heated food product coming out of the heater, and a heat exchanger where heat from the second heat transfer stream is transferred to the first heat transfer stream. A method for using the system is also disclosed. The product can be a food product, including but not limited to a beverage. The container containing the heated product can be any suitable container, including but not limited to bottles and cans.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention relates to water and energy conservation in systems that require heating of a liquid for process considerations, such as a chemical, bio-chemical, enzymatic and or microbial reaction, filling the liquid in a container and subsequently cooling the filled container to a lower temperature for label application, storage or any other purpose. The heated liquid may be a food product, including, but not limited to, heated beverages that are placed in containers. The invention is illustrated for cooling of beverage containers containing heated beverages, but the disclosure herein encompasses cooling of containers containing heated non-beverages and similar processes.BACKGROUND[0002]Beverages frequently need to be heated to reduce microbial load and achieve desired shelf life. These beverages have to be further filled hot into containers (e.g., container made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or glass bottles and / or aluminum cans) and sealed so...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The present invention provides a process that substantially reduces or eliminates the need for a cooling tower to provide a cooled water stream to cool heated products and the containers holding such heated products. Consequently, the present invention conserves energy and water lost by windage, evaporation and blow-off. The product, by way of example but not limitation, can be a food product, such as a beverage.

[0015]It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the system and methods disclosed here can be particularly suitable for the cooling of beverages and their respective containers after such beverages. Thus, the systems and methods disclosed here can be used in the reduction or elimination of undesirable reactions, such as chemical reaction, biochemical reaction, enzymatic reaction, and microbial reaction, and any combination thereof. By way of example, but not limitation, the systems and methods disclosed here can be used to reduce microbial load and the reactions or effects due to such microbial load and achieve desired shelf life.

Problems solved by technology

When filling of containers must be stopped for some reason, such as a temporary mechanical failure of filling equipment, it is undesirable to shut the entire system 100 down because it would take too long a time to start the entire system 100 again and get the temperatures of the various streams back to their desired levels.

The low spray water discharge temperature limits the amount of heat that can be recovered and used in upstream heating processes, and non-recovered heat is released to the atmosphere at the cooling tower.

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